Ever wondered why some people seem to stay consistent with fitness and diet, while for others its an uphill battle? Well, there's a little science behind what makes healthy habits easier to stick to over to long-term, and today I am spilling the tea with a few secret methods from my Healthy Habits Lab program. Come learn how you can start to become more consistent with working out and your diet, and build a body and life you positively love. Get your coffee or water, and come learn how its done!
The health and lifestyle habits that you keep and practice daily, have a big impact on how you look and feel. So, if you have been finding it hard to stick to a new fitness regime or being regular at the gym, and consistent with healthier, clean eating, you'll want to pour a cuppa and read this from start to finish. I'm going to share exactly how to get unstuck and start being more consistent with your goals.
How To Make Consistency A Habit
Like any goal you want to acheive in life, it is the consistent, daily actions that you take which will move you closer and closer to your end goal. Consistency is key. However, for many people, this is also something they struggle with despite their best efforts. Having worked with hundreds of women in clinic, there are a few common reasons I see happening that account for this, and they are:
the goal is too big and quickly becomes overwhelming, especially when she is already on overload with life in general juggling motherhood, her career, and home life etc
she doesn't have a clear roadmap of the steps she's going to take to reach her goal and thus keeps trying this and that with little success. A few healthy recipes or a gym class aren't enough to reach a goal, you need a concise plan of action.
she's impatient and when the results are not instant, her motivation wans and soon after her efforts follows. Many women get caught in this infinitely loop of starting, floundering, quitting and starting up again.
These are just a few of the reasons why consistency with fitness and diet can be a hard habit to master, and maintain over the long-term. If you identified with any or all of these, please know, you are not alone. These are the top 3 roadblocks my clients face when we unpack things in clinic, but the good news is these are 100% solvable issues.
How To Be Consistent Working Out
The following ideas are based on the methods I teach inside Healthy Habits Lab and to clients in my nutrition clinic. We use these strategies not just for eating habits and weight management, but rather across all aspects of life to bring about positive transformations.
Schedule Working Out Like An Appointment
Remember the roadmap I mentioned above? If you want to be more consistent with your fitness and workouts, you need to schedule it like an appointment. Somehow if you have an appointment with a doctor, banker or even a friend, you show up, right. So, approach your fitness the same way, make it an important appointment only with yourself. You wouldn't be a no-show to a dear friend or family member, so don't flake out on yourself.
STRATEGY: Lock in your gym time, and schedule it in your smartphone calendar and reminders, write it on the fridge calendar, stick up a few reminder post-it notes around the house and include your "why" to help prompt you to keep up your commitment to workout. Make this non-negotiable.
Workout Out Harder & Smarter
As an ex personal trainer, I can tell you from real life experience helping women transform their bodies that if you gave me 10 minutes, I could have you looking and feeling fitter than someone who is slogging it 60-minutes on the treadmill. To see results, you need to train harder and smarter, but that does mean it takes up more time.
A straight cardio workout just isn't as effective as an intense HIIT-style workout and one that can be executed in less time and with more efficiently. So, when you think about working out, go hard and in less time to see faster results. A 7-minute HIIT workout practice a few times a week or even daily, is going to melt fat faster than steady-state cardio. True facts. So, look up some high intensity workouts on YouTube, or click here to browse my free home workouts.
STRATEGY: Workout harder and smarter, especially if you are time-poor mum struggling to fit time in for your fitness and rebound after baby. Several intense workouts spread out through the week are more effective than an hour in the gym. Workout in the convenience of your own home while baby sleeps. There are no excuses; you cannot tell me you've not got 7-10 minutes to focus on yourself, as a mum of 5 even I do! Want done-for-you home workouts, click here.
Add Extra Physical Fitness To Your Day
As I teach inside the Healthy Habits Lab, it is the small, incremental habits and actions you practice daily that create consistency and result in achieving your desired fitness goals. So, if you are finding it hard to stick to regular gym classes or blocks of time, try committing to several small burst activities instead. These high intensity-style workouts (even if they last only a few minutes) are an excellent way to build your fitness and stay consistent with your workouts.
STRATEGY: To practice this, try spontaneously running on the spot for a count of 30-60 seconds in as many rounds as you can muster. Race up the stairs for 5-minutes at first walking briskly up, then running, then, then briskly walking up them. Try and beat your efforts from the day before, pushing harder.
Get A Gym Buddy Or Accountability Partner
There is so much evidence to prove that having an accountability partner is an excellent way to help yourself stick to your goals and see results. By sharing your goal with a trusted friend, family member, or by joining an accountability group, your motivation will be boosted, helping you to keep going when you don't feel like it. Bulletproof your efforts by seeking out others who are likeminded and will support you in chasing your goals.
STRATEGY: find a friend or group who will hold you accountable to your fitness goals and gym efforts. This can be so empowering, so if you are struggling a bit right now, go find a walking or gym buddy, join a fitness-focused group, sign up for classes, or find an accountability group like mine, come join us!
How To Be Consistent With Your Diet
Maintaining a healthy diet, along with daily exercise, is a proven recipe for natural weight balance. Here, I am going to share my top tips if you have been struggling to remain consistent with healthy, clean eating See how many you already practice, or what ones you may want to add in to help you get back into a regular, healthy eating routine.
Stay Consistent With Meal Planning
You may groan at the idea, but meal planning is such an effective way to stay on track with healthy eating habits, and to feel more in control of nourishing your body daily. That old saying, "... if all you have is good food in the fridge, you'll eat good food", really does apply here. Help your future Self eat healthier by stocking homemade, wholefood meals and snacks ready to go. It is often when we fall in the door at the end of the day that that unhealthy decisions are made because we are too exhausted to cook. Even a few pre-cooked, heat and serve meals can make the difference in whether you order greasy pizza or not. Think ahead to your future Self with your wellness goals in mind. Meal planning is an excellent way to stay consistent with healthy eating.
STRATEGY: learn to practice meal prep each week to plan out super healthy meals that will support your specific health and fitness goals. It does not need to take you hours and hours in the kitchen to practice this, just a few key recipes prepped for the week could be all you need to make the difference. Want inspiration and to learn how, visit the meal planning blog.
Track Your Meals & Eating Habits
If you want consistency, you need to create a measurable scaffolding around your goals. This is why it is super important to have a way to track what is working well, and what is not. Once you do, it becomes easy to assess why something is making it easier to stick to a healthy diet, versus the things that are making it more challenging. Knowing this, you now have a very powerful strategy at your fingertips to help you stay consistent.
STRATEGY: to keep track of what works well and what doesn't, you may like to keep a food diary, use an app like MyFitnessPal or others, or write it all down in a planner or journal. Choose one that works best for you and start tracking things for a few days or an entire week. Weed out what isn't working, amplify what does.
Focus On Well-Balanced, Wholefood Meals
As mentioned above, meal planning wholefood meals is such an effective way to stay on track with healthy eating habits, and to feel more in control of nourishing your body daily. Forget about restrictions and everything diet culture has misled you to believe. Eating a well-balanced diet of wholefood-based meals is all you need to rebalance your body weight and support your wellbeing.
STRATEGY: focus your plate on a lean, palm-sized serving of protein such as salmon, chicken breast or vegan sources such as tofu. Fill half of the plate with a cup of high-fibre vegetables, whether that is from a mixed greens salad, stir fry vegetables, or roasted veggies. To balance this, add a small thumb-sized serving of healthy fat from avocado, nuts, seeds. Choosing to make things simple, and eat this way not only removes the confusion of what to eat, but is also proven to provide your body with the nourishment in quality it needs every day. Visit the recipe blog for done-for-you meals and inspiration.
Practice Intuitive & Mindful Eating
Intuitive and mindful eating is a practice where you focus on being more aware, not just of what you eat, but also the joy and full experience of the act of eating. There are several key aspects to mindful eating that are helpful to get you started and they are as follows:
sit down to eat and really focus on the complete activity of nourishing your body
slow down, chewing each bite thoroughly and savouring the aroma, texture, flavour etc.
remove all distractions and really allow yourself focus on how your body is feeling
stop when your body is starting (not when) you feel full; by then its too late
put the fork down between bites, breathe, and check-in with your emotional state
choose food that you know work for your body and make you feel happier, healthier
These are the basics of intuitive and mindful eating, and with some practice, they'll become second nature before you know it. I have an entire section of the blog dedicated to educating people on how to me more conscious and mindful when eating, please click here.
STRATEGY: put into practice by scheduling your meals when you know you can honour the act of eating, not be rushed. Turn off your devices when you eat and take your time to savour the presentation, aroma, taste and full experience of eating. Stop eating part way through the meal to gauge how hungry you still are; if you eat too fast, you'll miss your body's natural satiated cues.
Staying Consistent With Working Out & Your Diet
Remember, forming new habits and sticking to goals is a process, and success comes from being commitment and your persistence. If you find you are struggling with consistency, reassess what habits you are keeping that should be moving you closer towards your goals. Adjust as needed to be more regular with your fitness and healthy eating each day. By following the above tips, you'll increase your chances of staying with your fitness routine and health eating habits.
Want to learn how to make working out and healthier eating part of your new normal? Then you need to run, not walk to the next intake of my 6 week lifestyle coaching program.
Join Healthy Habits Lab
There's a reason why habits are such a challenge to stick to long term, and I'd love to teach you how to overcome it. The next 40 days could completely transform how you make habits and achieve your goals! Come on, let's go!
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So, tell me in the comments what goals you are working towards and want to acheive this coming year. I'd love to cheer you on and provide you with many more success tips. Let me know what specifically you are working on, and I'll pop back with some helpful ideas to help ensure your success!
Emma Lisa, Nutritionist & Women's Practitioner
Emma Lisa is a Nutritionist & Women's Health Practitioner with over 12+ years experience in wholefood nutrition, meal planning and health coaching. She is a published cookbook author, passionate food recipe creator and lifestyle blogger, and an advocate for women's health and anti-diet culture. When she's not in clinic, Emma is mum to five kids, in her test kitchen and a wellness digital creator. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
Healthy + happiness,
Emma Lisa xx
HEALTH & NUTRITION PRACTITIONER
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